Van de Kamp Defends Ad Criticizing Feinstein Record

Democratic gubernatorial candidate John K. Van de Kamp Friday defended a new TV commercial that he is running, saying that its criticism of Dianne Feinstein was designed to present parts of her record as San Francisco mayor that she had left out of her own commercial last month.

But rather than defend all six charges in his ad, Van de Kamp chose to focus on one: the projection by Feinstein’s successor, Mayor Art Agnos, that the city would have a $180-million budget deficit for fiscal 1988-89. Agnos blames the projected deficit on her spending policies in the mid-1980s.

Feinstein, who left office in January, 1988, blames the projected deficit on factors beyond her control, including the settlement of expensive lawsuits against the city.

To which Van de Kamp said Friday in Santa Monica: “Clearly, one of the two Democratic candidates for governor is either wrong or simply being untruthful.”

Van de Kamp then issued a challenge to Feinstein to clear up the questions of responsibility for the budget deficit matter.

“I’ll put up one-half of the money it would require to have any of the Big 8 accounting firms resolve the issue . . . Dianne Feinstein can put up the other half.”

Feinstein adviser William Carrick responded: “This is basically a hotdog maneuver designed to pump up John Van de Kamp’s failing campaign, and we’re not playing that game. Standard and Poor’s of New York gave the city an AA rating in August, 1988, months after Dianne left office, and said the following: ‘The AA rating also reflects management’s willingness to adhere to sound fiscal policies.’ ”

Although Van de Kamp said last fall that “people are tired of negative campaigns, tired of negative candidates,” his new ad criticizing Feinstein’s record is definitely in the negative category.

But a Times analysis of the six specific charges in the ad found that Van de Kamp had taken some liberties with Feinstein’s nine-year record as mayor, blaming her for some problems left by the late Mayor George Moscone, problems she moved to solve in her tenure.